Monthly Archives: November 2012

Apologies, Stiletto sweethearts! This was supposed to be a Monday Funday post, but as luck would have it, our VPN (virtual private network) conked out yesterday.

So, for the past 24 hours here in China, while VPN-less, we couldn’t access Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, even Google (couldn’t get into Gmail as well), even Yahoo was drifting in and out…and yes, no WordPress either, where this blog, The Bamboo Stiletto, resides. The only thing working was Bing (but WHO really uses Bing, anyway?) Highly frustrating but TIC (This Is China). Sigh!

We had a sneaking suspicion that all this clampdown has something to do with the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party but what’s annoying is that we have NOTHING, NADA, to do with politics, so the guardians of The Great Firewall should just leave us the heck alone!

Ok, rant over…we do think it IS interesting though that during the same period that China is experiencing a once-in-a-decade leadership transition…new Chinese President (and First Lady!) onboard very soon…the USA is also undergoing a presidential election. Interesting, doncha think, duckies????

Anyhooz, even though we’re obviously not voting, we couldn’t escape the media onslaught of the US presidential elections (we do have 2 CNN channels at home, the Asia Pacific one with all the familiar media faces in Hong Kong, as well as the US one, complete with American commercials)…so we just gave up, thinking, why escape?

Instead, we decided to make the race more interesting (for all of us) by fashion policing both the candidates’ wives!

1.) In this corner, the incumbent FLOTUS: Michelle Obama, 48 years old
(dang! girlfriend looks GOOD for her age! Wish our arms were that toned!)

Mrs.O wore Narciso Rodriguez to welcome US Olympic & Paralympic athletes to the White House on September 2012. She previously wore Rodriguez on the night of her husband’s presidential victory, November 4, 2008. (God, I remember staying awake with Herr Hubby that historic night!). That winning Rodriguez dress had the most number of knock-offs at the Shanghai fabric market for MONTHS afterwards!

During a university visit, the First Lady wore this multi-print dress by British-African designer Duro Olowu – called an “unknown” designer by American fashion critics – but who is actually quite famous in the UK. In Asia, his dresses are carried by our fave store, none other than Lane Crawford, of course (we picked one of his multi-print goddess dresses at a bargain warehouse sale!)

During the DNC, Mrs. O. wowed political circles with her moving speech & set the fashion twitterverse abuzz with this gorgeous silk pink and grey-blue number from one of her go-to fave designers, Tracy Reese. Everyone was totally tweeting about her matching grey-blue manicure!

2.) And in this corner, the challenger, aspiring FLOTUS: Ann Romney, 63 years old
(holy cow! does she bathe in milk? she looks AH-MAY-ZING for a lady in her ’60s…in her ’60s!!! Repeating in case you didn’t get that)

Here’s a closer look at Mrs. R’s custom-fitted cream suit by Alfred Fiandaca, a designer whom she favours, shopping off the rack at his stores in Boston & Palm Beach.

Such an unexpected look for a presidential candidate’ s wife and at the RNC, no less, we love it! Mrs R went sophisticated casual with long linen jacket, khakis & high heels and accessorized with an oversize turquoise necklace.

For the RNC’s 2nd day, Mrs. R decided it was time to stop messing around & brought out the big guns – a battle-red shirtdress belted at the waist with a gold buckle, by Oscar de la Renta (another Nancy Reagan fave & a designer notably NEVER worn by Mrs. Obama).

Also at the RNC, Mrs. R again favoured Oscar de la Renta, looking stunning in this bright turquoise blue number with little matching bolero jacket.

The Canton Fair, the world’s biggest trade fair, which happens in Guangzhou every year for 3 weeks from mid-October until early November, finally ends today. For the past 3 weeks, we’ve tried to avoid going out as much as possible since everything, restaurants, bars, the train stations/airports, shopping malls, hotels, and indeed, traffic in the city, has been frenzied. It was ri-DON-culous trying to get a cab to go anywhere!

It was The Bamboo Stiletto’s first Canton Fair, so we were determined to experience it all for the first time and document accordingly. The Canton Fair is the mother of all bargain shopping experiences so for the benefit of those die-hard shoppingeras/shoppingeros out there, I’m sharing my experience here, in the spirit of, let’s call it, “best practices.”

How exactly do you navigate the Canton Fair? You are not an import-export wholesaler, trader or buyer. But you live in Guangzhou and rumor has it among your expat friends that shopping bargains can be had when the world’s biggest trade fair is happening at your doorstep.

The good news? The rumors are true. The bad news? The Canton Fair happens in three phases roughly spanning three weeks and individual shopping bargains can only happen on the last day of each of those phases, when traders are getting ready to pack up their goods and may be looking to offload their inventory of samples to save on shipping costs.

So, one of the first things you need to do is identify which products are being traded on which phase. For instance, home decor/furniture, gifts & toys may be traded during Phase 2 and fashion/clothing & shoes/bags may take place during Phase 3. Ask around, read the newspaper or check on websites like City Weekend Guangzhou (plug, plug:-). You absolutely have got to get the dates right for the items you like.

Once you’ve got that down, just like any elite athlete, you then have to prep big-time because the Canton Fair is like the Olympics of bargain shopping!

The next thing you need to do is obtain a Canton Fair overseas buyer’s pass. Never mind that you are a Guangzhou resident and that the only things you’ve bought lately were milk and eggs from the Corner’s Deli. Prepare to bring your passport, an ID photo, a business card and RMB 100 (about USD 16). You can apply for your pass at any of the overseas buyers’ registration counters at most five-star hotels in town.

Can’t find any of these counters? Head over to the Canton Fair venue itself, at the Pazhou Exhibition Center, and follow the clearly marked signs indicating the spacious and airy hall for “Overseas Buyers Registration.” Friendly, smiling trade fair staff, all speaking perfect English, will be on hand to efficiently assist you with forms and payment, provide you with a Canton Fair guide map and within minutes…voila! You are now an overseas buyer. The cool thing is, the pass is good for a lifetime, so if you want to return for more bargain shopping expeditions in future Canton Fairs, better keep your pass safe.

Officially registered to spend some shopping money!

Now that you have your pass and can sling it around your neck – like all the real buyers do at the Fair – you then plan your transportation strategy. Going there is a no-brainer. You can take the Guangzhou metro, cab it or see if you can swing a ride on any of the free Canton Fair shuttle buses proliferating at any of the major five-star hotels in the city. No, going there is not a problem at all…it is your exit transportation strategythat you should be carefully planning. If you don’t have your own, preferably very spacious, vehicle, then our recommendation is that you splurge a little bit and hire a mini-van with a driver. Make sure you’ve got the driver’s mobile handy and remind him to stay alert, for when he needs to pick you up (with your vanload of purchases) at any of the exits afterwards.

Lastly, before you actually enter the hallowed halls of the Pazhou Exhibition Center, do a mental checklist of your clothing and equipment. You must have your Canton Fair buyer’s pass and guide map in hand. Wear the most comfortable walking shoes you own. Don’t tote one of your heavy designer handbags; this is not the day for showing off your latest “It bag” purchase to your girlfriends. Carry cash – lots of it, if you can. Don’t forget your mobile – essential for communicating with lost friends and the aforementioned exit strategy driver. And bring a large suitcase or large shopping trolley – with wheels.

Once inside the Fair, give yourself a couple of minutes to get your bearings and simply gawk. The sheer vastness of the trade halls, the mass and diversity of people from all over the world are overwhelming to the senses. Yet everything is well-organized, with clearly marked signs for directions. Cafes and restaurants offer refreshments and meals, courier companies vie for packing and shipping services and bathrooms everywhere are well-stocked and clean. To get from one trade hall to another, there are covered walkways, with carpeted “sidewalks” for those on foot and “lanes” for those riding in comfort on little electric trams that shuttle back and forth in between trade halls. Try not to get run over by an over-eager shuttle and stay safely on the “sidewalk” instead.

Study the map, figure out which trade hall you want to hit, then attack.

In the beginning, you will probably browse slowly among the stalls because you will be so overwhelmed. The quality of most products at the Canton Fair is simply superb, truly export-worthy and world-class and the sheer number of gorgeous items all in one vast place is visually staggering.

Some traders cannot be bothered to sell to individual shoppers and some of these traders already have makeshift signs posted outside their stalls, saying: “No sale.” This means that unless you’re willing to buy in volume quantities, don’t even bother them. Some traders who are willing to sell, have signs saying so, “Sale” or “Stock sale”. However, not everyone willing to sell posts signs, so, if you do see anything you fancy really badly, it is still best to ask. Simply walk into the shop, quickly point at the stuff you want and say outright:“Mai, bu mai?” (buy, cannot buy?) After a while, you will be amazed at how swiftly you can do this at so many shops and how much ground you’re able to cover in minutes.

Keep a watchful eye open for stalls whose staff are already busy clearing the stall and packing their items into wooden crates as they will usually be more amenable to giving items away at hefty discounts, or if you’re especially lucky, for free. This usually happens in early afternoon, right after lunchtime.

By early afternoon, after two or three hours at the Fair, you might find that even your large suitcase or shopping trolley will not be adequate for your purchases and you’re wondering how on earth you’re going to transport everything outside the trade hall to the exit gate. Make sure first, at the last stall where you’ve made big-ticket purchases (like, a piece of furniture) that you are issued a gate pass so that you can exit the trade hall with all of your purchases without being questioned by security.

Just as the Fair slowly winds down, you will notice an army of ayis (literally, aunties, in China, to mean, older ladies or maids) pulling flat wooden trolleys with rope, wandering the halls. Hail one of these ayis and negotiate in your best Chinese for her and her friend to load up their trolley with your items and take you to the nearest exit gate, in exchange for a small fee.

Once at the gate, it’s a simple matter of calling your driver to pick you up and load up all your new goodies in the car.

Exhausted but triumphant, The Bamboo Stiletto & fellow Stiletto-istas looking like a bunch of bedraggled garbage ladies, surrounded by our purchases as we wait for our driver at the Fair’s exit gate.

And, duckies, you must be wondering what on earth got our stilettos into a twist at the Fair…here’s a peek at what we picked up (after 2 hours of shopping – we were too dizzy to continue any further):

Blue Tray (free)

Scored the darling blue tray for free from a hastily departing trader…now it’s part of a charming vignette in the guestroom.

Red tray (free)

From the same trader, also scored this beautiful red tray for free…now it makes a striking bar tray in a corner of the dining room.

Red Eames Chair (RMB 120, approx. USD 20)

This lovely red Eames chair, now sitting in a corner of the living room, was selling for only RMB 120 (roughly USD 20), can you believe it???? Trader, who specialized in modern mid-century furniture (my absolute LOVEZ!), was in a hurry to get out of town & just wanted to get dump his samples. Was dying to get my hands on an Eames rocking chair but wasn’t “chop chop” (hurry, hurry) enough…someone snatched it up from right under my nose!

I was beside myself with excitement at the Fair when I spotted the silver chinoiserie stool (foreground) & the trader agreed to sell it to me for RMB 400 (about USD 66). He had a gold one too, but I knew the silver would be perfect in our living room at Casa Stiletto, as a side table ideally serving as a perch for coffee or a drink, the occasional book or magazine, next to our Eames lounger & ottoman. Oh, and btw, that lime-green tray you see on the purple ottoman? That’s a freebie too 🙂

Congratulations to moi…we’ve successfully navigated our first Canton Fair!!! Now, life in Guangzhou can, hopefully, get back to normal.

Like this:

Yoohoo, Stiletto-istas! Remember little ol’ moi?
I hope you haven’t been thinking that I’ve hung up my stilettos for good. Oh no, no way, babes, but we do apologize for our long silence. Let’s just say that, life for realz has gotten a little more interesting (read: busy) lately.

First, we went on a couple of little trips in the neighborhood – Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines. Short & sweet trips…some for holidays, one was absolutely necessary, but as all took us away from our home office and daily writing routine, all were mightily distracting.

Next, our little part-time editorial & writing gig for City Weekend Guangzhou, an English-language website for us Canton expats, suddenly got us busier than we’d anticipated as we got inundated with lunch, coffee, dinner, drinks invites from our hotel PR contacts in town. Everyone wants to be our new BFF! It took us a while to adjust to the sudden social whirl, I tell ya!

Lastly, with the increased calorie intake from all that gourmet cuisine and champagne we were ingesting at all these luxury 5-star hotels, we realized that we also needed to increase our level of physical activity. Unless we wanted to blimp out and end up bigger than our refrigerator! So we’ve been madly dashing about, from bootcamp to Zumba, from running to yoga, from tennis to golf, with the result that we actually ended up with both tennis elbow AND golf elbow, at the same time.

See what I mean? It’s an interesting (read: busy) life.

This week, I sat in the grand ballroom of an extravagant dinner and Givenchy fashion show at the Sheraton Guangzhou – in celebration of the hotel group’s 75th anniversary – and watched the competent young hotel PR lady working behind the scenes (obviously exhausted, stressed, overworked, all prim & proper in her demure business suit, all smiles & tactful diplomacy on her perfectly made-up face). And realized, that used to be the old me. I pondered the sticker label that had earlier been affixed on my sleeve and which I’d transferred to my champagne glass and thought: “How weird does it feel to be on the other side of the fence?”

All I can say – of my wonderfully strange new view from the other side – is that: I am deeply, wondrously, profoundly grateful. Life never ceases to amaze with unforeseen blessings and it’s up to us to embrace these with a positive mind, a grateful heart and arms wide open. Have a glorious week ahead, everyone!!!

pondering the view from the other side…strange, new, wonderful…& totally enjoying it!